How was invented the fridge magnen?

How did the fridge magnet come about?

 

Today it is extremely difficult to meet a person who does not know and has not seen the fridge magnet. To get acquainted with such a miracle, you have to be patient and travel through dense forests, abandoned villages, where a person rarely set foot. This wonderful mania for fridge magnets came to us from America. The first magnets were looked at with admiration, as a valuable overseas curiosity. In the 90s, the appearance of a magnet on a refrigerator from distant countries was a whole event for a family, it was allocated a central place on the door and no one missed the moment to boast of it to those who came to visit. Now to see a refrigerator all in a wide variety of magnets is already a common thing, it is rare to meet completely without anything. Well, that would not be in the house at all, not a single magnet for the refrigerator - this is not real! But what about the souvenir magnet brought from trips and excursions, when buying which, standing near a souvenir shop or a tent, eyes ran up, not knowing which magnet to choose, there was an internal struggle: yes, this is a trifle - just a souvenir, there is nothing to spend money, just I'll take any cheaper magnet, a vinyl or acrylic magnet with a photo and that's it ... well, that's for myself, but a bright ceramic magnet pulls, beautiful, contagion, but it also costs like the two of the above put together ... well, yes ... what to take that ... Or donated by loved ones or relatives, as an inexpensive keepsake - a fridge magnet will also be there, no options. Well, as without colleagues and friends, whether you were where they went or not, but here I am sorry, a fridge magnet, as a souvenir and a purely symbolic gift from the trip, is provided! It has already become a tradition, a work ethic among colleagues.

Fridge magnets have completely entered our lives, delighting people. Although sometimes, what to hide, they cause different feelings. Everyone has a magnet brought by you from an amazing place for you, where you have experienced so many happy emotions, then looking at this magnet you have memories and a good warm feeling. Do not be surprised when your child or friends who have come, relatives got to the refrigerator, where those magnets are apparently invisible, according to the law of meanness, from all of them the most beloved magnet will be chosen, and the forces of the young generation will be directed with all their energy to play around and make out- destroy. Everyone has some life stories related to fridge magnets and situations that they remember. So where did these familiar fridge magnets come from and how did they come about?

 

The history of the discovery of the magnet.

There is an old legend. As long ago in Asia Minor, in the picturesque hills of Magnesia, where shepherds grazed their flocks, and not far from iron ore mined. One shepherd, whose name was Magnus, grazing flocks in these places, noticed that when stepping on one of the unusual black stones, it was difficult to lift his legs from them, since nails from his boots were attracted to the stone. The stick, on which he stuffed an iron tip for convenience and protection, had long and habitually used it, also behaved strangely and was attracted to these unusual stones. The shepherd told his friends about his discovery. Since then, this unusual black stone began to be called, in honor of the attentive shepherd who found it, “the Magnus stone” or simply “magnet”.

img. The stone is a magnetic iron ore.

Back in the 6th century BC. NS. in ancient Greece, the physicist and philosopher Thales mentioned magnets, then they already knew about some of the properties of a magnet. The first scientific study of the unusual properties of a magnet took place many centuries later in the 13th century by the scientist Peter Peregrin. Which, in 1269, described the properties of a magnet in a book. In many countries, by the 12-13th centuries AD. NS. The quality of the magnet was appreciated and was used for magnetic compasses on ships in navigation; ships of Europe and China began to use them in the forefront. Since then, many scientists have studied the properties of magnets and conducted various experiments with them.

img. Ernest Bord (1877 - 1934) - William Hilbert demonstrates a magnet to Queen Elizabeth I in 1598

The study of the magnet and its properties also cost many scientists nerves and efforts. Yes, and this did not happen quickly and not without incidents. One Danish scientist, in 1820, decided to publicly prove that there is no connection at all between magnetism and electricity. The scientist tried, gathered more students into the lecture hall and turned on the electric current near the magnetic needle. According to eyewitnesses, at that moment the students saw the "dumbfounded" face of the famous physicist who conducted this experiment in front of the hall, his name is Hans Christian Oersted. To his credit, the physicist did not leave everything as it is and repeated his experiment, confirming an important discovery - the interaction of an electric current and a magnet. This all led to the manufacture of an electromagnet in 1825 in England by the efforts and perseverance of the engineer William Sturgeon. Now magnets were produced on an industrial scale, they were used in many industries, especially in technology.

 

The invention of the refrigerator.

 

From the very name "fridge magnet" it is already clear what we usually hang it on and where it was originally intended. So, without the refrigerator itself, there is nowhere. So how did the refrigerator appear, which today leads everyone in the house in terms of the number of visits and peeking in, opening the door? You can safely mentally go back several thousand years ago, during the reign of the emperor Nero, who mercilessly drove the servants into the mountains to clean and frozen water bodies, where they collected pure alpine snow and ice in containers for the imperial table. In China, they also quickly realized the benefits of cold temperatures for food, as Marco Polo, the famous traveler, wrote about. The first refrigerators were made of earthenware and porcelain, they would have delighted wine connoisseurs, since, starting from the 18th century, bottles with wine were placed in these containers, crushed ice was placed on top, and they were served like this to the table. In Europe, the use of snow and ice for everyday life and the invention of the original refrigerators came later than China. Among the Slavs, whole buildings were built, dug into the ground, using wood, earth, turf, snow and ice, in which supplies were placed for storage. Each nation had its own tricks and adaptations, how and what to store, how to use the cold for this, this topic can be talked about for a long time. And here it is - the first prototype of a kitchen refrigerator, which was made in 1803. The entrepreneurial mindset plus the desire to make money, in this case, played a good role for humanity. Just imagine, you received a good order - from Washington itself, the goods - production is established, everything seems to be fine - earn money and be happy, it's really a problem, the goods they want are good quality and fresh butter - unlike the current butter of many companies now - his goods quickly deteriorated and melted. All of this will make anyone use their brains. But just the brains were excellent in the American Thomas Moore. He thought of taking thin sheets of steel, from which he made a container for transporting his butter. For thermal insulation, the skins of the poor rabbits were donated, with which a kind of steel safe for oil was wrapped, all this was placed in a large tub made of cedar, covered with ice. So butter calmly endured the move, bringing in income - and Thomas named his invention a refrigerator. The world decided that the invention was excellent, and after a short time, deciding that there would not be enough rabbits for everyone, decisively replacing the skins of cute animals with sawdust and cork, the old Thomas's refrigerators began to be used at home. Already in the middle of the 19th century, massively, in houses whose owners could afford it, there were such home glaciers. Externally, like kitchen cabinets. Then they improved more and more, and were already different - with lower cooling, with upper cooling. With the help of artificial ice discovered in 1850 by American physician John Gorey, everything became wonderful, especially after the discovery in 1857, when Australian James Harrison was already using the first compressor in refrigerators. And how, they say, it started. Further, the refrigerator, thanks to new discoveries and inventions, was more and more improved. In 1926, Danish engineer Christian Steenstrup introduced the world to a quiet, harmless and durable refrigerator designed specifically for the home. America and Europe enthusiastically, realizing what kind of profit this promises, with such an incredible demand from the population, began the production of household refrigerators for the home. In the forefront was General Electric, released a refrigerator, the Monitor-Top model, and just imagine, it sold more than 1 million copies, and this was in 1927, and there was still no end and end to demand, although in those years the refrigerator was quite expensive.

img. 1929 Refrigerator Model Monitor-Top.

In the USSR, the first samples of a household compression refrigerator were produced in 1937. In Ukraine, the first serial production of KhTZ-120 refrigerators began in 1939 at the Kharkov Tractor Plant. The capacity of the chamber was 120 liters; several thousand units were produced before the start of the Great Patriotic War. By 1962, refrigerators had: in the USA - 98.3% of families, in Italy - 20%, and in the USSR - 5.3% of families. Now every house has a refrigerator, sometimes more than one. For all "family's favorite", to which there is more than one path trodden day and night.

 

The history of the emergence of fridge magnets.

 

 

Well, now we already know what and how it was with the magnet, with the refrigerator, we also figured it out. And so, back to the beginning to the first question, how did the fridge magnets come about. With which people of the whole world decorate, their "breadwinners, keepers of goodies and calories", that is, refrigerators. The history of the appearance of fridge magnets began in America in the 1950s. Several reasons contributed to this at once. One of the most important, like most of the reasons, is pragmatism and the monetary component. It consisted in the fact that the cost of the refrigerator was quite expensive, and when scratches or other flaws appeared on the surface of the refrigerator, then replacing it with a new one was problematic and expensive, think several times. The second reason, each family tried to decorate the interior of their kitchen and create coziness, to express themselves, so to speak. And they hung on the refrigerator, everything that came into fantasy and could serve for beauty, joy, inspiration, as decoration and self-expression - everything was used: cut pictures from magazines, painted creations of a beloved child, pictures, poems or lines from poems, photographs , inscriptions, etc. And all this joy-beauty, with the help of improvised means, at best, adhesive tape or glue was attached to the refrigerator. Such attachment was not easy, not to mention detachment, everything that was glued earlier spoiled the very surface of the refrigerator plus the nerves of the owners, and even flying off, clearly did not add beauty to the decor. The third reason is that such numerous types of communication as now exist for communicating with the family did not exist and often left notes for relatives. And the refrigerator is the most visited place in the house and its surface serves as a good background and a note on it attracts attention - especially in large letters and legible readable handwriting. I suppose that tired of fiddling with glue, John E. Wheatley came up with the idea to use magnets, which at that time did not yet hold for a long time, like modern numerous types of magnets, but could still hold non-heavy objects, such as a piece of paper, on the surface for a sufficient time made of metal. Judging by the mention of a sheet of paper, in John's thoughts, notes were clearly in the lead - an important thing in the family, if you take away the phones. And in November 1954 he received a patent for this. At that time, magnets began to be used more and more on a national scale. Previously, cars were painted with signs so that people understand what purpose the car is moving for - this is a courier service, a certain company car, delivery of various types of goods or furniture, etc. And one car can at different times change its purpose for its intended purpose, sometimes performing other transportation functions - changed its decision that now it is necessary to go on a different issue - hello paint. It is unlikely that everyone will like it, and all these signs began to be attached on a magnetic basis. Magnets became more and more part of people's lives and businesses, the large scale production of magnets reduced their cost. They interested businessmen in the quality of advertising and the quality of goods. In the early 1970s, one person, as has happened more than once in history earlier, also with an entrepreneurial mindset, is thinking about combining the bright and then very famous sphere of animation and the most visited place in the home of citizens, where the advertising product will always be in sight. well, or as a decor - a product for sale. His name was William Zimmerman and he is from St. Louis, Missouri. Zimmermann receives a patent for small colored cartoon magnets. Note, the first official ones, not magnets for attaching paper, but fridge magnets, as a separate full-fledged item. These fridge magnets were intended for decoration and convenience. This is how the fridge magnet appeared, which we attach to household appliances, most often to the refrigerator. On which it is held thanks to a special design called Halbach's magnetic assembly, the magnetic field on the front side of the magnet is practically absent and doubles on the back.

img. Single Sided Flat Fridge Magnet

How many centuries, human curiosity, effort, study, ingenuity, labor have been invested in the fact that today the phrase: “Bring me a magnet” has become so familiar and easy to us. Although we are trying even without it and reminders, we choose and bring this inexpensive and symbolic gift, a small souvenir - a fridge magnet. With this symbolic gift, we convey a piece of our emotions to loved ones or keep our memories in this souvenir magnet, and we hang them in a prominent and most visited place in the house, of course, on the refrigerator.

 

 

Choose and buy a wide variety of fridge magnets: acrylic, vinyl, ceramic, wood magnets, etc. Magnets on different topics, Ukraine and cities, with symbols, Ukrainians, cool magnets, funny, comic, unusual handmade magnets for different tastes. You can buy fridge magnets at reasonable prices and inexpensively in our online store "Your present" at any time convenient for you, delivery throughout Ukraine https://your-present.com/ .